Shenandoah Falls: A Song History
"Shenandoah Falls" has a Virginia-sounding name, but the documented history of the tune runs through California and Vermont, and none of the sources consulted here connect it to the song "Shenandoah." It is a reel in A major, played in standard tuning.[1] According to the Traditional Tune Archive, Carol Robinson, a musician from Sebastopol, California, learned it without a name from a mandolin player known as "Cookie" while both were at Sonoma State College. Vermont fiddler Pete Sutherland then learned it from her. Sutherland is thought to have named it, possibly because it brought to mind Bill Monroe's bluegrass piece "Shenandoah Breakdown."[1]
W. H. Tipton & Co., “Shenandoah River – Harpers Ferry and vicinity,” stereograph (one half shown), about 1877. Library of Congress. No known restrictions. The tune itself has no documented tie to the river.
Sutherland recorded it on Eight Miles From Town (1982). Later recordings include Randy Zombola's Snowflake Breakdown (1986), the Boiled Buzzards' Fine Dining (1991) and Grand Picnic's Contra Roots and Branches (2004).[1] It is printed in Johnson's The Kitchen Musician No. 2 (1982), Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1994) and Songer's Portland Collection (1997).[1] The North Atlantic Tune List calls it a hornpipe in A, includes a recording by David Kaynor, and lists it in group practice sets.[2] Stephen Seifert includes it in his mountain dulcimer collection Join the Jam II.[3]
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